Selecting Your Kitchen Countertop
/What should you consider when selecting your Kitchen Countertop?
The kitchen is such an important part of your house. You prepare meals there daily, gather there often with friends and family, and sometimes use it as your staging area for your day. With such a heavily trafficked area, you want it to have a beautiful aesthetic while being highly functional. If you are building a new home, remodeling your kitchen, or just wanting to do a simple refresh, the countertops make a huge impact. Let’s unpack deciding factors in selecting your kitchen countertop material.
Sanitary Surfaces
With all of the meal prep, you are going to want a surface that most importantly is sanitary. This means you need to have something that is easy to clean. What surfaces are the easiest to clean? Smooth sealed surfaces.
Tile countertops are often difficult to clean because of all of the grout lines. Can’t you just imagine spilling some tomato sauce on your countertop as you are serving a meal? You go and eat with your family and when you come back to clean after dinner, you find the acidic red sauce has set on the grout lines making it difficult to clean. You scrub using lots of elbow grease to get the stain out. Or what if it’s chicken stock that dripped onto the grout line. It might not stain your grout, but bacteria could grow in this area. Selecting solid surfaces for your countertops helps you to avoid some of this risk.
Countertop Durability
Your kitchen is a work area. You want it to look clean but you also want it to function for all of your cooking and baking needs. There are several key durability qualities that you should consider when picking out your kitchen countertops. Finding the right balance for your needs will make you happier and less stressed to use your space.
Hardness: Hard countertops have a lower chance of scratching or chipping. Granite, tile, and quartz fall into this category.
Heat resistance: Some people love to be able to put hot pots and pans directly on their countertops and not worry about damaging the surface. Ceramic tile and stainless steel countertops stand up quite well to heat. Sintered stone is another option that is sensitive to temperature.
Crack resistance: some of the stone materials like granite are beautiful and hard but are prone to cracking.
Warp resistance: countertops that integrate wood can warp and become misshapen.
Stain resistance: the more porous a material, the more likely it is to absorb materials which can cause discoloration or allow bacteria growth.
Countertop Top Materials
You will see countertops this year continue to follow trends of previous years when it comes to materials.
Quartz, a man made stone, will continue to be the most popular material. This is easy to clean and durable with lots of design and color options. That said, you do have to be careful about heat exposure with pots and pans.
Quartzite, a natural stone, is also low maintenance but does need to be sealed annually. It’s heat resistant but doesn’t come in as many color options as quartz, is more porous, and prone to scratches.
Granite in lighter or veined slabs is a popular choice. This material is heat resistant, easy to clean, and durable. The shortfalls of this option are that it can crack, it’s porous and that it needs to be properly sealed.
Marble is an expensive luxurious option. The unique veining can make a marble countertop quite beautiful. That said, this material is easy to stain or scratch. This can be hard to stomach with the high price point.
Butcher block is a natural wooden option that is popular. Many people use this when mixing materials in a kitchen. Wood does require regular sealing. You have to pay attention to water on this surface as it can damage wood over time. That said, the wood is easy to clean and can be sanded and resealed.
Soapstone is heat resistant, stain resistant, and easy to maintain. This nonporous material doesn’t come in a wide variety of colors and you need to accept that scratches will appear over time.
Stainless steel comes in a variety of finishes, are easy to maintain, durable, heat resistant, and naturally antibacterial. These countertops have a very specific look as they often look industrial. Being metal, they will show scratches as well.
Concrete countertops are trendy and highly customizable. This surface will require regular maintenance. Although you will have a heat and scratch resistant surface, that trade off comes with a highly porous surface that must be frequently resealed and is prone to cracking.
If you are considering what type of surface you’d like to use for your kitchen or even bathroom countertops, reach out to our experts at Hardwood Specialties. Our team can talk to you about trends while also helping you weigh the pros and cons of the materials. This can help you to select a surface that looks beautiful in your space while still being highly functional for you and your family’s needs.